


Heartbreak

by helphiddlestoned



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: A Visit From Death, A little bit of graphic violence, How Loki deals with injured Tony, Idiocy at its Finest, M/M, On the battlefield, pissy Loki is the best Loki, tony you retard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2013-10-09
Packaged: 2017-11-13 20:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/507407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helphiddlestoned/pseuds/helphiddlestoned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Heartbreak looks and feels different everytime - it happens rather more to both of them than Tony would care to admit. But hearts can be mended...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On The Battlefield

**Author's Note:**

> This is series of little one-shots (all in the same movieverse set at the same time - after the Avenger's movie and with Loki as part of the Avengers) that focus on Heartbreak and putting the little pieces back together again with a little help from another...Hope you enjoy :)

The suit is battered and bruised and ripped and everything that could possibly have gone wrong has gone wrong. You name it, it’s happened.

“Jarvis, you still with us?”

The internal system crackles and there’s a long pause.

“ _Of course, Sir, two new threats located on the left…unusual energy signature…Loki Laufeyson already at the scene, however…”_ The AI’s voice crackles out of life and Tony curses under his breath as the thrusters stutter and an explosion goes off next to his left shoulder.

“Assholes” He mutters and obliterates a few of their new foes out of existence. Who knew creatures from space could cause this much trouble? Let alone elves…

Tony lands with a loud clang a few feet behind Loki and immediately regrets doing so as the god swings towards him, palms aglow with green fire, eyes blazing and comes within an inch before realising its Tony.

“Woah, woah! Easy there sparky! It’s me…” Tony relaxes as the fingers stop short a little way from him and he breathes a sigh of relief.

Loki swings a calculating eye over him.

“You’re injured.”

“It’s nothing major.”

“Liar”

“Touché.” Loki’s lips twitch towards what might be a smile before his features settle back to a displeased frown.

“Let me heal you.”

“Now you just want an excuse to get me out of the suit – and any other garments for that matter.”

Loki grits his teeth and all but hisses at the inventor “I don’t need an excuse to get you out of your clothes, Stark, you will happily take them off and parade round in front of me without me muttering so much as a word. Let. Me. Heal. You.”

Tony has to laugh.

Or at least, he does until a magically enhanced spear hits him in the back of the head and he’ll be damned if that _isn’t_ concussion at least.

He feels the warmth and stickiness of blood trickling from the back of his head and his vision swims. Even through the haze though he sees the look of utter horror that passes across Loki’s normally closed features.

In the next 5 seconds, 10 of the creatures are ripped to smithereens and Loki has barely had to move. It reminds Tony never to piss off the god.

Despite the fact that he’s now seeing 4 of _everything_ , Tony still tries to fight, blasting the replusors at anything that looks remotely like an elf while resolving that this has thoroughly ruined Christmas.

He’s now a good hundred metres from Loki who is screaming bloody murder at the creatures before dutifully doling it out, each time he breaks through a wave and tries to move towards Tony, he is attacked again or Tony is pushed farther from him as he is also attacked.

Over comms Steve Rogers’ voice crackles into Tony’s ears, asking him to come in but his eyelids are fluttering and the last time he felt this bad he woke up in a cave in the dessert. The voice goes from talking to yelling when he tries to reply but only manages to groan.

He’s then hit by an enormous blast of magic that sends him flying. The helmet, already cracked from his previous encounter with a spear, shatters, leaving him lying against the rumble covered sidewalk as his vision flickers between light and black.

Numbly he hears Steve’s voice fall silent, knows that he’s managed somehow to turn onto his back and notes that his vision is now mostly, in fact almost completely, black.

Through slow blinks, he feels a shockwave go through his body, sending shivers and tingles through his very bones. His breath stutters and he coughs violently and somewhere in the back of his mind, his brain registers that that’s blood on his tongue.

There’s a face above him, pale to an unnatural colour, eyes searing like a caged animal, so deep, emerald green. Tony reckons he could get lost in those eyes. In fact, he has, many times…it’s those eyes that he's come to love. The first thing he sees in the morning, the last thing he sees at night. Maybe this is how he’s meant to go, staring into a colour that he knows is special, knows somewhere in the back of his mind he should keep fighting for, even if he can no longer remember why.

And he wants to be, he wants to be fighting, wants to stay with that colour…he lifts a hand and reaches towards the bright green and it stares back at him, but it’s wrong. It’s terrified – why should it be terrified, those eyes have never been scared, why would they be scared…for him?

The last thing he sees is those eyes and before everything goes black, he hears the words, screamed through the haze.

“No! Don’t you dare die on me, you will not die, you of all people cannot die – you stupid mortal! Live, for the love of the gods! LIVE!” the scream rocks him to his core but his eyes have closed…

______

Tony’s eyes flutter open and they find the green.

There’s the sound of deep, heavy breathing. And for the first few seconds it’s all he hears and all he sees is a god.

Then, he hears car alarms, he smells smoke, he feels the dirt underneath him and he can feel the steady beating of his heart.

He’s alive.

He slowly sits up and looks at Loki, his vision fully restored, his body apparently now in perfect condition.

“…How?”

Loki lets out a noise that might have been a huff of laughter, were it not so choked. There’s no way the god of mischief is crying – that’s not possible. But there’s the tear…just one…if you looked at a glance, you might miss it, but Tony’s always looking. It makes him want to do the same.

He looks away briefly to glance at the street and try to ignore the emotions rising in his chest…except there’s no street. In fact the all the buildings within a 500 metre radius of them have been reduced to rubble.

He looks back at Loki wide-eyed.

“...You are such a fool, Anthony Stark…”

“So did you...why? Why would you save me…?” _I thought I wasn’t that important_ goes unsaid but it hangs in the air between them.

“I said you wouldn’t die.” Tony nods “And you didn’t.”

“Liar.”

“…Touché...” Loki smiles a sad smile and there’s too much emotion there for Tony to deal with or Loki to show because he knows it’s reflected on his own face and he’s not sure when it happened.

“So I did die then…and you brought me back?”

“I might have…”

“At the expense of a vast area of New York…”

“I thought it could take it.”

Tony lets out a huff of laughter “I love you.” Loki blinks. Tony blinks.

“What?”

“What?”

“What did you just say?”

“Nothing, I said...I don’t know…” Tony stares back into Loki’s eyes, his breathing now elated, not being able to believe what just came out of his own mouth.

“You…” Loki stares at him, mouth forming the shape of words but no sound actually coming out. “You…”

Tony glances down, sure he’s now going to lose the trickster forever and that that’s the worst thing he could have said, that now he’s going to have to give up the one thing he really needs. And then it hits him…he meant what he said. He doesn’t even know when it became that way, but all of a sudden he’s sure. He loves him. He loves Loki – and anyone be damned if they don’t find that scary.

So he looks back up and into Loki’s emerald eyes that are churning in their depths, utterly unsure for once in his life.

“I said I love you…”

There’s a pause as Tony listens to the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

“…Say it again.” Tony blinks again, taken aback.

“What?”

“Say it again.”

“I…I love you…?”

And then Loki’s hands are on the side of his face and he instantly relaxes into the cool touch as the tricksters lips meet his in a bruising kiss that forces them both back down into the rubble. Loki’s clever silver-tongue glides over his and he hums appreciatively against his lips and kisses back with fever.

They pull apart breathlessly and Tony can’t help but grin. “Now I definitely love you.” He kisses Loki again, though much more gently.

“I think we need to get you out of that suit” Loki traces a few fingers down his neck, one hand in his tousled hair “…and preferably into a bed.”

Tony smirks “I whole-heartedly agree – what better way to celebrate dying?” he chuckles lightly when Loki mutters “There isn’t one…” but is too distracted to make a reply as the gods finger lace their way through his hair and an elegant hand tilts his chin up into another kiss.

He certainly agrees with the statement.  


	2. A Visit From death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you come face to face with the very manifestation of death, you have to start making the deals of a lifetime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Or: In which Tony meets Mistress Death and, luckily for Loki, she takes a liking to him. Also what's this and me using actual comic info?! Right basically, there is a Mistress Death from the comics (in case you don't know) and Thanos really is totally in love with her and willing to destroy a hell of a lot of stuff for her etc. but I am NOT saying anything else in here is canon (well the thing about her appearing as a woman but sometimes as just bone is true but yeah). Enjoy the second instalment!

After falling into the void, Loki was forced to reckon with the true nightmares of this world – the monsters that lurk in shadows, the evils that slither like smoke around you, that slide into you mind, your very conscience, and make themselves at home – their only purpose to take you apart piece by piece for the simple pleasure of seeing your demise.

But everything in this world answers to someone – it might be a person, a deity, a parent, even a spirit – but there is always someone. Those monsters, those unbearable, terrible _things_ ; even they had a master.

Loki was one of the lucky few who had met her.

______

“Lokes? Would you pass me that wrench?”

Loki made a small, positive humming noise and placed the tool in the inventor’s outstretched hand without even looking up from his tome; a frown gracing his elegant features.

“Something troubling you there, green fingers?” Tony glanced at the god, fiddling with the schematics for the latest suit.

Loki shut the book with a snap. “As it goes – Yes…something quite large in fact…”

“Hmm, sounds fascinating, do tell – you didn’t try to destroy another planet or something did you?”

Loki narrowed his eyes at him briefly and Tony flashed him a wicked grin. He sighed and returned to staring at the far wall.

“I am currently indebted to one person in the entirety of the universe…and it is the one person one really does not want to have a debt with.”

Tony frowned but nodded.

“Among my – _travels_ – I became very unhinged; as you so witnessed when I arrived here on Midgard – I was trapped and enthralled by Thanos; I was, however, aided by one person…one who is not even a person.”

“And who might that be?”

“She is to Thanos what breathing is to you and me; a need, a necessity – a love.” Loki turned towards Tony, his eyes dark and thoughtful in such a way that it made Tony stop all that he had been doing and cease to utter a single sound.

“She is far different from you or me – or even Thanos. She is the embodiment of something metaphysical…Mistress Death…”

Tony stared at him for a few moments, saying nothing for a while as his frown deepened.

“You’re trying to tell me that, while out and about, you met _Death_ …and that you owe her a _debt_?!” He raised his eyebrows to extraordinary heights as he stared at his partner. “And you didn’t think to mention this before now, why?”

“It wasn’t important until now.”

“Wasn’t important – wait, why is it important now?”

Loki looked him deep in the eyes. “Because eventually, debts must be collected – and she’s coming to collect it.”

Tony breathed deeply for a moment, the only sounds in the room the low beeping of machines and the ragged rise and fall of his chest.

“What is your debt; what will you pay?” Loki shook his head in answer and Tony paused again, his brain wandering into area’s that he didn’t even want to _contemplate_.

“…Will she kill you?”

“I don’t know.”

______

Loki was correct, of course. Mistress Death might be the embodiment of a horror but she was fair, almost kind and true to her word, so he had expected her to come – he was not to get off free.

He was, however, entirely wrong about what she would do.

______

Tony wandered into the penthouse, unbuttoning his suit jacket as he went. He really did hate gala’s, they were so faked and unnecessary.

The sun was shining through the windows as he made his way towards the kitchen.

“Loki, you around…fancy some lunch?” He turned on the spot, glancing around for any sign of the trickster. Deciding he definitely wasn’t in this part of the penthouse at least, Tony turned towards the living room, only to have Jarvis interrupt his thoughts.

“Sir, you may wish to know that while Mr Laufeyson is indeed present, he has company.”

Tony frowned. “The good kind, or the very, very bad kind?”

“The horrendous kind, Sir.”

Tony quickened his pace towards the living room and was just in time to see a beautiful woman silently shake her head and raise a gentle hand to Loki’s cheek.

The trickster opened his mouth to speak but seemed to think better of it, shaking his head and looking downwards. Then the woman’s fingers curled slightly – suddenly pure bone instead of flesh – and Loki Laufeyson vanished off the face of the earth.

The woman’s visage returned to one of flesh and she turned as though to leave only to find a pale, stony faced Tony in her path.

His mouth worked for a moment before he managed to speak. “…Mistress Death, I presume…bring him back. Now.”

The woman smiled a sad, age old smile and Tony suddenly felt infinitely small. She shook her head.

“Please – you have to.”

Once again she shook her head and began to walk past him. Without thinking he reached out and grabbed her forearm.

Instantly, he regretted it. An iciness seeped through his very bones and his heart stopped for a moment before he let go and it stuttered back into life, beating now at a frantic, terrified pace.

Mistress Death stopped to consider him, cocking her head slightly to one side.

Then she did something that made Tony’s blood run cold – she spoke. She didn't even seemed to open her mouth and her voice was like smoke and velvet; barely there and wisps of it floating about his ears – but it was also like gravel.

“He loves you, and you him – but he is not yours. He belongs to me, struck fairly and without reversal.” Tony stared at her.

“You’re wrong.” She smiled, indicating for him to go on. “Sure – you ear marked his soul, whatever, no disrespect, your lady, but I don’t care; he’s mine. He belongs to me, he’s with me – he’s always meant to be with me. He not supposed to cease to exist entirely while I’m out – whether it’s due to some higher power or not. He is mine. I am his. Give. Him. Back.” Tony tried not to notice that it wasn't just his voice shaking.

She stared at him, as if considering his very soul – for all Tony knew, she could be. Then, she placed a hand over his heart, and this time, it stayed beating.

He stiffened under the touch as her visage flickered between flesh and bone, his mind racing. How did you bring someone back to life when Death herself had come to take them in the first place?

“You are afraid.” He tried to hide the shiver that went down his spine at the sound of her voice. He also figured it was futile to lie.

“Yes.”

She smiled “And you are intelligent.” She looked at him for another moment considering him again. “I do not speak to mortals Mr Stark – or hardly any beings in fact. You should consider yourself highly merited for that alone.”

Tony grinned but then remembered who he was conversing with and coughed slightly. “Any chance that that might buy me a bargain?”

She narrowed her eyes slightly in thought, there deep black depths churning with the knowledge of a thousand millennia.

“Chose carefully…”

“Bring him back; return him to me – unharmed, unchanged, as crazy and as perfect as he’s always been…please. Just bring him back.”

“And what will you give me in return, Mr Stark?”

His lips twitched “I would offer my life but I get the feeling he’d drag me back just to kill me for being so spectacularly stupid…” he smiled at the ground, allowing himself to think only of the god for a moment instead of any possibilities wrestling in his brain. He looked back up at her.

“I’ll give anything I can…”

She stood still for a moment and then moved her hands so they both rested on either side of Tony’s face.

“Well then, this is my bargain: The next time I come – be it millennia, centuries or mere years – I come for you both. Both of your souls, added permanently to my collection, together for all eternity. There will be no taking it back, no changing your fate…Do you accept these terms?”

Tony closed his eyes for a moment and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He reopened them to look back at her, breathing still hectic.

“You have my word.” He felt a shot of electricity run down his spine as he said the words and knew there was no way back.

“Then we have a deal – until next time, Mr Stark…”

Then Loki appeared in the centre of the room, took in a hugely deep breath and collapsed against the nearest wall, staring silently at the two of them.

Mistress Death only smiled her small, sad smile once more and then she vanished into thin air. Tony rushed over to Loki without even a glance over his shoulder.

“Hey, hey – look at me – you alright?” Tony took the trickster face between his hands, still shaking slightly.

“I’m fine; just a little…light-headed…”

Tony finally let go of the breath he’d been holding with a sigh and wrapped his arms around the god.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

Loki let out a huff of laughter. “It wasn’t exactly a choice.”

They stayed silent for a few minutes until both their breathing had settled an Loki looked far less like death and more his usual pale. It was then that Loki spoke up.

“Tony…?”

“Yes?”

“Did you just make a bargain with Death?”

Tony let a small smile slip onto his face “maybe…”

“Have I ever mentioned how perfectly insane you are?” Loki muttered, reaching towards the inventor, closing the distance between their lips for a kiss far gentler than either was used to.

“Either that or I’m just perfect.” Tony replied with a smirk.

Loki grinned and pulled Tony towards him once again, deepening the kiss as he confirmed the inventor was indeed in front of him and he was very much alive, then he pulled away gently and they stared at each other for a moment until Loki murmured something quietly.

“Perfect it is…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so that's snippet 2 - these don't exactly have an order but they are all set in the same universe all with Loki as part of the Avenger's and are all related to Heartbreak - or a time when it almost happens (hence why death is involved a lot). Also hope my version of Mistress Death is okay...And although in some comic versions she has completely white eyes without pupils or Iris's I like the comic versions where she has really dark eyes: completely black Iris's so I used that :)   
> Hope you liked it :)


	3. Idiocy at its Finest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony was smart enough to know not to piss off a god. Drunk Tony didn’t really have the sense to remember that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update?! What is this thing you speak of?!!   
> Yeah, sorry...I sincerly apologise for never updating this but hey, I finally got round to it, and this is the last installment for the heartbreak series because, much as I love it, it can be a bitch to write and just ended up sitting there for about a year before i finished this one, so yeah, last one in this fic, but i'll be doing other stuff :)I hope you enjoy this final installment.  
> I have no beta so as always mistakes are stupid and completely my own fault.

He had known he’d been drinking too much. Even for him, he was over the limit. Tony’s vision had swum for the entire second half of the night. His memories of getting home had been blurred; his memories of _who_ he’d brought home had been blurred.

The only thing he was sure he would never forget, that was probably etched into his mind for all eternity, was the look of pure seething fury on Loki’s face when he woke the next morning.

If he was honest, he couldn’t blame him at all.

______

Tony sat in his bed, covers hanging loosely around his waist, eyes wide, staying stock still as he contemplated the look of pure fury Loki was giving him…and also the leggy blonde next to him.

“Leave. Now.” Loki’s voice was steady but his eyes screamed bloody murder and the girl slipped from the bed and half walked, half ran out the door.

“Loki – Loki, look at me – I can explain, it’s not what it looks like!”

“Save your breath.” Loki was already turning on his heel, throwing two knives as he did, pinning Tony against the wall by his shirt. Another was thrown at his shoulder, hard.

Then, as Tony cried out in pain, Loki vanished into smoke and all the windows in Stark tower turned to dust, leaving Tony to scrunch his features in protest and scream.

Two minutes later, Pepper came rushing into the room a phone held to her ear already.

“Yes, yes, Stark Tower – please as fast as you can I’ll double whatever you’re being paid if you can get here in the next five minutes!” She yelled after taking a one look at the blood running down one side of Tony’s body.

He groaned as she pulled away the first two blades, the ones only holding him to the wall by the fabric of his clothes. Despite them not touching skin, they made him move slightly, and the knife in his actual shoulder shifted excruciatingly.

Pepper stared at him wordlessly for a moment, not wanting to touch the wound without paramedics on the scene, listening to his heavy breathing.

“What did you do…?”

Tony let out a bite of completely humourless laughter “I got way too drunk – I missed him, and I was sick of knowing it…next thing I knew I was waking up this morning next to some random bimbo – I don’t even know her name Pep, she was nothing and he…”

Tony trailed off, a sadness overwhelming the pain in his eyes and her lips turned down unhappily as she watched.

“Oh Tony, what were you thinking?”

“I _wasn’t_! I don’t even remember it – for all I know I might have just slept beside her.”

“If I might be of some assistance” Jarvis’s voice chimed into the conversation “You did indeed _not_ sleep with last nights bed occupant sir – she passed out while attempting to remove her dress and you yourself followed shortly after, after opening the new scotch.”

There was a small paused as Tony snorted “Fantastic…”

“Miss Potts, the paramedics are arriving in the entrance hall now, I take it I should allow them immediate access?”

“Yes, yes, let them up Jarvis.”

After that, the pain took hold of Tony’s brain and he began slipping in and out of consciousness as he continued to lose blood, despite Pepper’s attempts to help him.

The next hour was a bustle of voices shouting instruction as trained professionals removed the blade carefully, stuck an IV in one of his hands and a blood transfusion tube in the other. They wrapped up his shoulder perfectly, stopping the flow of blood effectively, and only then did Tony fully let himself pass out.

______

When he came to, Tony was still lying in his bed, but his chest was wrapped in several layers of white bandages and his shirt had been removed.

“Pep-Pepper” He tried to speak but his voice croaked like he’d been out for days or something. “Pep, are you there?”

Pepper popped her head through the bedroom door a moment later “Hey…how are you feeling?” She looked harrowed and pale compared to when Tony last saw her properly.

“Thirsty and sore – why does it feel like something crawled into my mouth and died?” He frowned.

She gave a small laugh “You’ve been out for a week, Tony; it seems there was some form of mild poison on the blade. You’re lucky the paramedics even found out what it was or you would have been out for a full month.”

Tony sighed and thought of Loki. He was always thinking up some new strategy – he wondered who that knife had originally been intended for. Hopefully there wasn’t a similar one straight through the heart of the innocent blonde who’d been chased out of his bedroom by the god.

“…Have you seen him?” Tony muttered quietly, hating the way he couldn’t keep such deep emotion out of his voice.

Pepper gave a quiet sigh and a small smile so full of pity that Tony wanted to scream “No, I’m sorry...Why don’t you try and contact him now you’re awake?”

Tony just scoffed which led into another coughing fit accidentally before he could speak. “Like he’ll want to see me…” he sighed “I screwed up, didn’t I Pep?”

Pepper just laid one hand on his cheek “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself – you _almost_ screwed up, but not quite; though I must say I wouldn’t make that your opening gambit.” She grinned when she saw a half smile pull at his lips “There’s food downstairs, just come when you’re ready, your shoulders wrapped tightly so it should be fine.”

Then she carefully stepped away from the bed and back out the room, leaving Tony to sigh and close his eyes to think of a very different pair of emerald green ones for a moment before shifting slightly and preparing to get up himself.

Little did he know, but from across the room, the green eyes watched him invisibly as Loki folded his arms and pursed his lips, refusing to make himself known to the inventor, or to back down.

______

Two days later and Tony’s arm was healed enough for him to move it almost normally…well, sort of.

Pepper highly disagreed with this statement and huffed every time she found him squirreled away in the workshop, eventually putting Jarvis on watch duty who half-heartedly attempted to keep him from his work (the traitor) but at least he let Tony in for an hour or two a day.

Loki didn’t show up in those two days, or the two after that, or the two weeks after that…but about a month and a half after the incident the others got a message from Thor letting them know that Loki had return to Asgard in the past week, if only briefly…He’d run as far as another _planet_ to get away from Tony then.

The inventors genius solution to this was to, instead of being mature because _screw that_ , drink himself into oblivion.

He lay on the couch staring at the ceiling, a bottle of Jack Daniels clutched in one hand, wondering what the hell he was meant to do now.

A few hours later and the room was getting blurry and Jarvis’s voice seemed a little fuzzy, so he missed the consistent warnings to put the bottle down as usual; and then, something sobered him up quicker than he ever thought possible.

He glanced once towards the bar with a sigh, looking away almost immediately only to do a double take, sitting bolt upright as he spotted a pair of poisonous green eyes, narrowed very, very dangerously at him.

Tony could have sworn with happiness.

Instead, he tamped down on the smile that threatened to overwhelm him and stood slowly, all the while watched by the God of mischief who was dress immaculately in a white shirt and black waistcoat over some rather tight black jeans, his arms folded, knuckles white.

“…Hey.” said Tony slowly, his eyes never leaving the God’s gaze.

Loki’s lips thinned even more than they already had but no weapons were being impaled in tony, so that was a definite improvement.

“Yes, hello.” Loki muttered curtly. “I’ve been led to believe by my _dear_ brother that perhaps I should hear you out.” His glare became piercing now “Gods knows why.”

Tony stumbled over words as he tried to think what to say “Yes, yes-I-yes, please, just hear me out – I promise it’s not what you think.”

“Oh isn’t it now?” Loki took three very deliberate steps towards him, the anger practically rolling off him in waves…Tony could hardly blame him, but he automatically took a step back, swallowing hard.

His gaze fell to the floor as he placed the bottle on a nearby coffee table. “I didn’t sleep with her, you know.” He glanced back up at the trickster “I can have Jarvis confirm it – hell you can watch the footage if you don’t believe me.”

Loki bristled slightly, inhaling a little too sharply. “Yes watching you fawn over some little harlot is exactly how I wanted to spend my evening.”

Tony winced “Yeah I…not what I meant…” he sighed “Yes, I made out with her, yes I brought her home, and I was a complete idiot, but I never slept with her…” He held Loki’s gaze as the god stalked ever closer, his lips pursed. “I never want to do anything to jeopardise what we have, Lokes…I don’t know what I’d do without you and this is the biggest mistake I’ve ever made, and I’m sorry.”

Loki was only a foot away from him now, and from there, Tony could see something in his eyes that maybe, just _maybe_ , wasn’t all anger.

“I should be throwing you out your own windows again.”

Tony snorted quietly before he could help himself “To be honest I was expecting you to…I admire your restraint.”

Loki’s lips did a further downturn, but there had been a flicker of amusement. He sighed slowly “I don’t forgive easily, Stark…”

Tony flinched at the sound of his last name but nodded sadly.

“…but you are too infuriating to leave alone forever.”

Tony’s head snapped back up, staring open mouthed at the god, who didn’t look so much angry anymore as weary.

Tony mouth worked wordlessly for a second before he took a tentative step towards Loki. “…I missed you, you know, so much…”

Loki sighed slowly before speaking in a clipped voice “Yes, well, I may have missed your presence also.”

Tony bit his lips to try and hide his smile, failing miserably, but at least this time it seemed like Loki might be doing something to same.

They stood together in silence for a few minutes, gradually coming to lean against one another, foreheads together, and when Loki’s arms finally, _finally_ wrapped around his back, holding tightly onto the god was all Tony could do not to cry. And he did _not_ cry.

“I thought I’d lost you…”

“I warn you now that if you’d slept with her you would have.” Loki muttered, but it seemed stiff, and almost pained.

Tony nodded “Yeah, don’t worry; not gonna happen.”

There was silence for another moment.

“I love you, Lokes…” Tony murmured into the quiet.

Loki’s sigh sounded absolutely exhausted. “I love you too – you complete and utter idiot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, well that's it for Heartbreak, I hope you had as much fun as I did! Thank fuck it's done though, it was making me weary, and I'm sorry it got so soppy near the end. Come drop me a line at help-hiddlestoned.tumblr.com if you wish to hit me for my terrible writing or, you know, just chat. Until next time amigos :)


End file.
